Afghanistan: Eight U.S. Troops Killed

If you don't personally know someone serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, it's somewhat easy to forget that we are a nation at war.

Americans are in harm's way, some making the ultimate sacrifice as they fight to protect our nation.

KABUL (AP) -- Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as an al-Qaida haven. The U.S. has already said it plans to pull its soldiers from the isolated area to focus on Afghan population centers.

Fighting began around dawn Saturday and lasted several hours, said Jamaludin Badar, governor of Nuristan province. Badar said the two outposts were on a hill — one near the top and one at the foot of the slope — flanked by the village on one side and the mosque on the other.

Nearly 300 militant fighters flooded the lower, Afghan outpost then swept around it to reach the American station on higher ground from both directions, said Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief. The U.S. military statement said the Americans and Afghans repelled the attack by tribal fighters and "inflicted heavy enemy casualties."

Obama needs to focus more of his attention on the war in Afghanistan. He needs to make some critical decisions on the direction of the war.

Obama was warned by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man he handpicked to be the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

The situation in Afghanistan is serious and growing worse and without more boots on the ground the United States risks failure in a war it's been waging since shortly after the terror attacks of September 2001, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, says in a confidential report.

"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Summary. His 66-page report, sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30, is now under review by President Barack Obama.

Obama needs to stop dragging his feet. He needs to prioritize. He needs to talk to McChrystal, not David Letterman and the hosts of five Sunday talk shows.

God be with the families and friends of the fallen.